Senate prez wants Sox fans to pay

By Cosmo Macero Jr.

July 24, 2000 Web posted at: 4:25 PM EDT (2025 GMT)

BOSTON, Massachusetts (The Boston Herald) -- Red Sox fans would directly bear most of the public cost of a new ballpark under a finance plan unveiled yesterday by Senate President Thomas F. Birmingham.

But commuters would be spared a citywide parking tax, and the Sox would still get a large share of revenues from a city-financed $72 million garage.

The proposal, which employs $4.5 million in annual surcharges on game tickets and luxury suites, comes as Gov. Paul Cellucci and Mayor Thomas M. Menino remain at loggerheads over their own rival finance plans. It also emerges as all eyes are on House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, who has yet to break his silence on which of the formal proposals the House will support.

``This does not rely on any general fee or tax. It's a blended approach,'' said Birmingham (D-Chelsea), who like Cellucci and Menino is offering the team $312.5 million in subsidies. ``What we're trying to do here, late in the day, is to move the process forward without any poison pills.''

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The ticket fees, however, are certain to raise protests from the Red Sox and possibly from Menino. The mayor fears even a $1 ticket surcharge, which Birmingham proposed, would be labeled a ``Menino tax'' because the $3 million in annual revenue would go toward repaying the city's $140 million ballpark subsidy.

The Sox, meanwhile, say a tax on luxury suites could render the prime accommodations unmarketable to corporate New England. Birmingham proposed a 15 percent surcharge on every luxury suite, estimating revenues would total $1.5 million a year.

``I don't think there's anything wrong with reliance on user fees to help us,'' said Birmingham.

In all, Birmingham identified $10.4 million in annual revenues that would be used to repay the city. Menino has said he needs $11 million, but Birmingham said the difference is a matter of rounding.

Other components of the Senate president's plan, some borrowed from Cellucci, include:

A $3 game-day parking fee charged to 10,000 spaces in a district around the Fenway area. ($2.4 million in annual revenue).

Dedicating increased revenue from sales and meals taxes inside the new ballpark to the city. ($1.5 million annually).

Using 1/4 percent of the city's unused hotel tax, leaving the other 1/4 percent untouched as a contingency for convention center overruns. ($1 million annually)

Diverting $1 million in annual profits from the new garage to cover the city's debt service. The Red Sox would still retain up to $6 million a year in garage profits.

Cellucci proposed cutting the Red Sox out of the anticipated garage profits entirely, a move the team says would throw off its financing for $352 million in ballpark debt. The Red Sox asked City Hall to accept $6 million in new property taxes as payback, a consideration Menino has ruled out.

And Menino proposed the citywide parking tax which Cellucci promised to veto.

``This is. . . quite consciously designed to address any of the issues that one party or another seemed to feel was non-negotiable,'' Birmingham said. ``I think everybody should be able to live with it. But this isn't the final word. I'm flexible.''

Still, Birmingham said yesterday that he, like Cellucci, wants to avoid any new broad-based taxes - suggesting Menino's commuter tax is dead. And echoing Cellucci further, he offered up to $28 million from the state's $100 million commitment for infrastructure to remove soil and contaminants from the 15-acre ballpark site.

The money could also be used as a ``cushion'' against cost overruns on construction, site work and land takings, all of which Birmingham, Cellucci and Menino agree the Red Sox are liable for.

The catch: Birmingham says the $28 million, or any portion of it the Red Sox use, would have to be reimbursed upon sale of the franchise by the Jean Yawkey Trust.

That condition appears aimed at persuading Finneran to loosely interpret ``infrastructure,'' though Birmingham said the state has shown such flexibility by financing and doing grading work on the new Patriots stadium site.

``I think this is fairly within our definition of what constitutes infrastructure,'' he said.

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